US President Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, on Tuesday, addressed contentious claims of “White genocide” in South Africa, with Mr Trump alleging that numerous white South African farmers have been brutally murdered over land ownership.
The exchange took place during a meeting at the Oval Office, which began on a cordial note but turned tense after a reporter asked Mr Trump about the United States’ decision to grant refugee status to white South Africans.
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The US President responded by airing video clips, which he claimed proved the genocide against white farmers.
The video clip showed people talking about “cutting the throat” and shooting white people.
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“Each one of those white things you see is a cross, and there are approximately a thousand of them. They’re all white farmers,” Mr Trump said, pointing to another clip that aired on a television screen at the Oval Office.
The South Africa leader, Mr Ramaphosa, however, pushed back against the allegation, pointing out that one of the clips played was a speech by an opposition party and is not a representation of the government’s policy.
He also stated that it would take Mr Trump “listening to the voices of South Africans” to change his view.
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“I would say if there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you these three gentlemen would not be here, including my minister of agriculture. He would not be with me. So it’ll take him, President Trump, listening to their stories, to their perspective. That is the answer to your question,” Mr Ramaphosa said.
Mr Trump, however, insisted on the allegations of genocide against South African white farmers and also accused the government of confiscating farmlands.
“You do allow them to take land, and then when they take the land, they kill the white farmer, and when they kill the white farmer, nothing happens to them,” he said.
However, the South African president denied the confiscation of land from white farmers under the land expropriation law.
The law was signed in January and aims to redress the historical inequalities of white minority rule.
“No, no, no, no,” Mr Ramaphosa responded. “Nobody can take land.”
He also stated that most victims of South Africa’s notoriously high crime rate are black.
Elon Musk, a native South African and top adviser to Mr Trump, was also present at the meeting.
Both Mr Trump and Mr Musk have claimed that the Afrikaners, white descendants of Dutch and French settlers, were targets of a “genocide.” This claim has, however, been debunked numerous times.
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Earlier in the year, Mr Trump suspended funding to South Africa, accusing it of mistreating some of its citizens without regard for the violations of their rights.
Last week, the US government admitted 59 white South Africans as refugees after they claimed they were fleeing violence and discrimination.
However, Mr Ramaphosa, in response to this, had said, “We all know as South Africans, both black and white, that there’s no genocide here. We are not genocidal. We are not committing any act of hatred, act of retribution or violence against anyone.”
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